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Urgent Pressure to Burst Out

Texas messed with us. Our lawsuit to get the Lonestar State to allow Secular Celebrants to solemnize marriages has been rejected by a federal court. We have feelings about it, and, yes, we intend to MESS RIGHT BACK:

“This decision has clarified one issue, and very starkly,” said [CFI’s Nick] Little. “If we referred to ourselves as a religion, they would have to allow us to solemnize marriages, for they assume that anyone calling themselves a religion, be they of a traditional faith or a fly-by-night mail-order operation, their ceremonies will contain ‘the necessary level of respect and solemnity.’ This court would rob the nonreligious of the chance for that very kind of respectful ceremony, and gives carte blanche to any outfit declaring themselves to be a religion.” …

… “The religiously unaffiliated make up a fifth of Texas’s population, and that’s millions of people who this court has decided don’t deserve to have the same rights to a meaningful marriage ceremony that religious Texans enjoy,” said Robyn Blumner, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. “We will appeal this wrongheaded decision to the Fifth Circuit, where we fully expect to be vindicated, providing a springboard to further victories in Louisiana and Mississippi as well. Nonreligious Americans will not be denied this most fundamental recognition of their equality.”

See? The law isn’t against atheists! Atheists have plenty of options if they’re looking for someone to solemnize their wedding. They can use a judge. Or a priest. Or a friend who pays a few bucks and pretends to be a priest.

If that seems like logical pretzel-making to you, it is. The judge used twisted arguments to pretend that the anti-atheist burdens in Texas’ law don’t really inconvenience atheists. And even when they do, it’s not crossing any legal line.

The idea is simple. It is like Atlas Obscura, but exclusively for UFOs, the supernatural, cryptids, etc.

“Is there a specific place where you’ve seen fairies, ghosts, bigfoot, time travelers, extraterrestrials, ultraterrestrials, crow conferences, sentient lawn computers, lanyard’d ogres, broccoli wizards, etc.?” the website asks, “Does your town have an urban legend you’d love to get to the bottom of? Send us your story and we might include it on our map!” …

… “Even if every account were a case of mistaken identity, imagination, or outright falsehood,” [mythology expert Dr. David] Floyd said, “such a map may still indicate areas where reports, of whatever nature, are prevalent, and still serve a kind of sociological purpose.”

The LA Times says hey, that Trump religious liberty rule is actually a license to discriminate! Thanks for noticing, y’all. They write:

This proposed regulation makes little legal sense, but it does serve the political purpose of burnishing President Trump’s reputation with the Christian conservatives who have made him an improbable object of adulation. But bolstering his base will come at the cost of a further fracturing of what was once broad and bipartisan support for the idea that the government should accommodate sincere religious convictions. The country loses when “religious freedom” is viewed as a pretext for discrimination. This misguided rule makes it easier to equate the two.

Currently, our walking and fundraising team is in second place among the local donor teams. … One of our members has offered to match every donation and has been doing so as they come in. So far, that person has not cried “uncle.” He or she is still able to continue. So right now, every dollar in your pocket that you can spare for our fundraiser is actually a two-dollar bill, and it will go toward research to end this heartbreaking disease.

In digitally networked societies, the dead are remembered online, and their survivors can use digital resources to express grief, find support and construct memorials. New norms and languages of mourning are emerging, including new references to heaven, angels and communication with the dead. The boundary between religion and nonreligion is blurred in these new practices, but we know very little as yet about what this blurring actually means to the bereaved.

Catherine Rampell at the Post plots the evil conspiracy that keeps the American people from understanding how GREAT Trump’s economy is:

When Barack Obama was president and the economic statistics were good, then-candidate Donald Trump said they were fake. When Trump became president and inherited the exact same stats, they suddenly became real.

Now that they’re turning south, they’re apparently fake once more. …

… And move over, Illuminati, because this particular conspiracy is massive.

It’s led by the Federal Reserve, Democrats and the media, of course, or so say Trump and his Fox News minions.

Paul Fidalgo

Paul Fidalgo has been communications director of the Center for Inquiry since 2012. He holds a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University, and has worked previously for FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy and the Secular Coalition for America. Paul is also an actor and musician whose work includes five years performing with the American Shakespeare Center, and he currently directs productions for the University of New England Players. In 2017 he was the second Richard Kirschman Free Thought Fellow at the Mesa Refuge in Point Reyes, California. His work also appears in the 13th book of the Dark Mountain Project. He lives in Maine along with his two dangerous kids. His personal blog is Near-Earth Object, and he tweets at @paulfidalgo.